New CFP playoff rankings, here’s what they mean

The college football playoff committee came out with their penultimate version of the new rankings last night, just days before the final rankings are to be released this Sunday afternoon.

There were only one or two things to argue over, but one of those was not Clemson at number 1. The defending national champion Tigers not surprisingly found themselves back in the top spot heading into the ACC title game with Miami this Saturday night. While the mini shocker came at number 2 with two-loss Auburn being ranked ahead of 1 loss Oklahoma who came in at #3 and undefeated Wisconsin who filled things out at #4. After that, it was pretty predictable with Alabama, Georgia, Miami, and Ohio St in that order.

So with the Canes now at #7, and the reshuffled rankings, the final plot line is set and the scenarios abound. Here’s a few to consider.

One, the most favorable for the committee, Clemson, Auburn, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin all win their conference title games. Pretty easy for the committee to choose the playoff teams at that point, but we all know things are rarely that easy or predictable in college football. So let’s go with one of the more chaotic scenarios.

Two, the underdogs win. Miami comes off their loss and beats Clemson as a 9 point underdog. They win, they are almost certainly to get in as a 1 loss ACC champ who just beat the number 1 team in the country. Then if Georgia beats Auburn, TCU beats Oklahoma, and Ohio St beats Wisconsin, that would be true chaos. Would a 1 loss Alabama team sneak in at that point?

And of course a third scenario would be a mix of the aforementioned two. The fact of the matter is, this thing is far from over and we are going into the final weekend of the season with 8 or 9 teams who have a legitimate shot at getting one of those final four spots.